Wolf criticized for latest ad

The Re­pub­lic­an Party of Pennsylvania is cri­ti­ciz­ing Tom Wolf, the Demo­crat­ic can­did­ate for gov­ernor, for a tele­vi­sion ad that ref­er­ences the bi­par­tis­an trans­port­a­tion bill signed last year by Gov. Tom Corbett.

In the ad, Wolf says, “Corbett raised your gas taxes through the roof.”

A day be­fore the ad was re­leased, Wolf ex­pressed sup­port for the bill at an event in Erie sponsored by the Man­u­fac­turer & Busi­ness As­so­ci­ation. He noted that the fund­ing would fix bridges and en­hance trans­port­a­tion in­fra­struc­ture.

Wolf soun­ded a dif­fer­ent tune in the ad.

“He’s at­tack­ing Gov­ernor Corbett for the very same plan on tele­vi­sion, a plan that was also sup­por­ted by Wolf’s own run­ning mate Mike Stack,” said com­mu­nic­a­tions dir­ect­or Megan Sweeney. “An­oth­er day, an­oth­er flip-flop from Wolf.”

Sweeney went on to say that, “Tom Wolf’s new po­s­i­tion on trans­port­a­tion, coupled with a brazenly polit­ic­al at­tack on Gov. Corbett for im­prov­ing Pennsylvania’s roads and bridges, is back­fir­ing. Per­haps Tom Wolf should call his own run­ning mate be­fore launch­ing polit­ic­al ads that are filled with old con­jec­ture and short of cur­rent facts.”

Sup­port­ers of the trans­port­a­tion bill claim it will pre­serve 12,000 jobs and cre­ate 50,000 jobs. To pay for the fund­ing, the state’s gas­ol­ine tax was raised, as were fees for driver’s li­censes and vehicle re­gis­tra­tions.

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U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and Lt. Gov. Jim Caw­ley are ex­pec­ted to at­tend the 30th an­nu­al Re­pub­lic­an City Com­mit­tee Billy Mee­han Clam­bake, sched­uled for Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m. at Cannstat­ter’s.

Tick­ets cost $100 and in­clude an open bar and all-you-can-eat food.

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The Com­mit­tee of 70 will spon­sor An In­sider’s View of Polit­ic­al TV Ads on Wed­nes­day, Sept. 17, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the third floor of Lad­der 15, a bar/res­taur­ant at 1528 Sansom St.

Polit­ic­al con­sult­ant Neil Ox­man, founder of The Cam­paign Group, will dis­cuss the cost and ef­fect­ive­ness of tele­vi­sion cam­paign com­mer­cials. The cost is $10, which in­cludes food and one free drink.